Starting BasinC

BasinC has been made easy to use, and starting is no different. Start BasinC by using the icon supplied (BasinC.exe) in the Start Menu or in the folder BasinC was installed into. You will firstly be greeted by the Editor window, which will remain unresponsive until the emulated Spectrum has been initialised.

This is a process whereby the original 48k ROM is loaded into an emulated memory model and executed from address zero. The ROM will perform a self-test, which is to fill all available RAM with the number two, and then read that back, whilst clearing the RAM back to zeros. Originally, this was a useful test which could tell the ROM how much memory is available back in the days of 16k and 48k Spectrums. It's not essential to BasinC's operation, but is a nice historical effect. The net result is that the Display Window will display a white border around an animated black rectangle, with faint red vertical lines, before clearing to white with the message

© 2003 Sinclair Research Ltd

at the bottom of the display. This indicates that all is well, and BasinC is ready to start.

The Editor will then gain focus and pop to the front, with a blank white editing area, and a flashing blue/white cursor similar to the 128k Spectrum's Editor. The gutter at the left is for line numbers, and is not a bug in the Editor.